July 14-15, 2011
Thursday-Friday, 9am-5pm
CES/AIA LU (HSW) 14 units
A profound paradigmatic shift is taking place in our ability to conceive, describe, deliver, and integrate design information through digital modes of practice. To embrace the innovations made possible through parametric design methodologies and Building Information Model (BIM), practitioners must have a fundamental understanding of this evolution and a set of tools for implementation. This program will address the challenges for practice management and change, the opportunities for risk mitigation, and design portfolio expansion. The key topics of parametric design, automation, multi-domain optimization, collaboration and coordination, and digital fabrication and prototyping will be highlighted. The program will use case studies from large and small-scale firms to illustrate examples from a range of project types and practice. The program is intended for practitioners transitioning toward a digitally enabled practice. You will acquire an understanding of the principles of parametric digital design, the basics of BIM, and the most promising methods for digital fabrication. The program will include hands-on introduction to parametric BIM software.
Coordinator:
In 2009 Dr. Gerber was appointed Assistant Professor of Architecture at the University of Southern California. He has since been awarded a courtesy joint appointment at USC’s Viterbi School of engineering. Since joining the USC faculty he developed and taught curriculum in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Graduate sequence and primarily as a design studio and design technology professor in architecture for both undergraduate and graduate core and electives. Prior to joining the USC faculty Dr. Gerber was full time faculty at the Southern California Institute of Architecture from 2006-2009. Dr. Gerber has also taught associative parametric design and parametric urbanism at UCLA’s school of architecture and urban design. Since 2006, Dr. Gerber has been invited to the AA’s DRL graduate program as a technical tutor, the Laboratory for Design Media at the EPFL in Lausanne Switzerland, Stanford University’s CEE department as a guest instructor, and the Tecnologico de Monterrey School of Architecture, Mexico.
Professionally, Dr. Gerber has worked in architectural practice in the United States, Europe, India and Asia including for Zaha Hadid Architects in London, England; for Gehry Technologies in Los Angeles; for Moshe Safdie Architects in Massachusetts, and The Steinberg Group Architects in California. While working for Zaha Hadid Architects, Dr. Gerber was involved in a number of well published competition schemes, and completed buildings. As a project designer and project architect, Dr. Gerber initiated the competition winning entry of Zaha Hadid Architects’ first large scale masterplan and urban design project; the one north Science Hub Development project in Singapore. In 2007, Dr. Gerber managed Research and Development for an AEC technology startup company as Vice President of Innovation and subsequently began consulting for architecture, engineering, and construction firms on global digital practice, advanced uses of associative parametric design tools, simulation and design optimization technologies and was subsequently the Vice President of Marketing for Gehry Technologies.
David Gerber received his undergraduate architectural education at the University of California Berkeley (Bachelor of Arts in Architecture, 1996). He completed his first professional degree at the Design Research Laboratory of the Architectural Association in London (Master of Architecture, 2000), his post professional research degree (Master of Design Studies, 2003) at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. Dr. Gerber began his doctoral research (Doctor of Design, June 2007) program immediately thereafter and was advanced to candidacy in 2004. While at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, Dr. Gerber was awarded academic accolades including numerous scholarships, academic grants, the Frederick Sheldon Traveling Research Fellowship (Harvard University Committee on General Scholarship), a research appointment at MIT’s Media Lab (Research Fellowship for William J. Mitchell’s Smart Cities Group), and a research fellowship with Moshe Safdie. Dr. Gerber’s doctoral research “Parametric Practices: Models for Design Exploration in Architecture” is a study of parametric technology and methodologies and their affect on architectural design, theory, process and praxis.
- Learning Objective 1: Participants will be able to identify the fundamental differences between conventional CAD environments and parametric digital design environments.
- Learning Objective 2: Participants will understand the principles of parametric digital design in order to create basic parametric models.
- Learning Objective 3: Participants will receive necessary instruction on how to transition from a digital model to digital fabrication and rapid prototyping environments.
- Learning Objective 4: Participants will receive an introduction to parametric BIM software and explore the implications of digital workflows for design practice and management.
Reader:
A 100-page coursebook will assemble articles dealing with Parametric Design and BIM applications.
